WE are blessed in North Yorkshire to have generally excellent schools. Consistently, they outperform the national average in the annual league tables and that’s down to the work of staff and supportive governors and parents.
I was reminded of this strength this week when attending presentation evenings at Richmond School and The Wensleydale School. The hard work and aspiration we celebrated was wonderful.
I was particularly grateful to the pupils, staff and parents at Richmond for listening to me on an evening when the England rugby team kicked off their World Cup campaign. I trust my remarks were sufficiently concise for everyone to get away in time for kick-off!
But there is one aspect of schooling in North Yorkshire that I’m not happy about. The county’s schools don’t receive the funding they should.
Having done a lot of work on this issue since being elected, it is clear that the way Government cash is shared out to schools isn’t fair and it is rural areas like North Yorkshire which are disadvantaged.
Did you know that until recently the local authority in Hull received almost £400 a year more per pupil than North Yorkshire County Council? The comparison with neighbouring Bradford was even greater – £507 per pupil.
The reason for the discrepancy is an historic funding formula dating back years which disproportionately favours urban areas.
I am pleased to report the Government has made some progress on redressing the balance. In 2014, North Yorkshire received a one-off extra £10m from the Government to combat this unfairness. As soon as I was elected, I pressed Ministers repeatedly both in private and in Parliament to make this extra funding permanent. The Government agreed in July to do so which was great news
However, even with this welcome adjustment, North Yorkshire pupils are still £241 worse off than pupils in Hull and £373 than pupils in Bradford.
I want to close this gap further and next month will start by holding a special event – a primary school education forum – bringing school leaders together to hear their views and how I can support them. Head teachers and chairs of governors from all the primary schools in the constituency have been invited and I’ll be talking about what I think we can do to highlight the funding injustice – including launching a petition to take to Parliament.
On the farming front this week , I urged the chief executive of the Rural Payments Agency, Mark Grimshaw, to distribute the CAP payments farmers are entitled to as soon as possible in December. It could make all the difference to farm businesses facing low prices for livestock and, most critically, milk.
Mr Grimshaw told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee of which I am a member that his staff were working flat out to do this and he will report back to our committee on progress soon.
Milk prices were among the issues raised with me when I visited Stokesley Show with my family on a gloriously sunny day last Saturday. It was a fantastic event – all credit to all involved – and thanks to the show committee for looking after us so well.